ABSTRACT
A central goal of reforms must be to maintain the separation of powers and system of checks and balances, while enhancing Congress's collective decision-making capacity. Leaders need to play more of a role in informing the public about the nature of Congress's agenda. A bipartisan review of congressional reform, conducted by the Brookings Institution and American Enterprise Institute, concluded that, "No effort to reform Congress and revitalize its role in national policy making can possibly succeed without a fundamental restructuring of the campaign finance system. Soft money benefits the parties and the collective decision-making capacity of Congress, to be sure, but it has a demonstrably corrosive effect on the public's confidence in politics and on governmental institutions. In 1996, a Brookings Institution Forum on campaign finance reform recommended a tax credit for small individual contributions. Direct party contributions to candidates comprise only a trivial percentage of overall spending.
